In many “off-highway” vehicles, such as line painting vehicles, sweepers, pavers, marine vehicles, etc., parallel steering circuits are used to control an actuator that steers the vehicle. In some applications, each of the parallel steering circuits is actuated using a steering wheel. In other applications, only one of the steering circuits is actuated using the steering wheel.
In addition, many vehicle manufacturers prefer to use steering circuits that incorporate a “load-reaction” feature. The “load-reaction” feature is one in which external loads imparted onto the actuator will be felt by the vehicle operator through the steering wheel.
While vehicle manufacturers prefer to use the “load-reaction” feature with steering circuits, this feature is not used with parallel steering circuits since the actuation of one of the steering circuits will result in movement of the steering wheel of the other steering circuit. Therefore, there exists a need for a parallel steering circuit having a load-reaction feature that overcomes the above disadvantages.